Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social media site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a site page has accrued, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or products on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of campaigns, spy on the competition, and avert crises. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, businesses, products, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of people including marketing teams, online reputation specialists, market researchers, sales teams, agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to track what is being said online about their products or brands allowing them to respond to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article where we explore many social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. Go here for more details:
(Are you looking for an effective way to monitor your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective social media monitoring plugin for your WordPress-based site and increasing your social media exposure.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you improve your social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s task is to change all the red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping their metrics on “green”. From these tests, they were able to notice that their top 10 best performing sites saw an improvement of up to 360% more traffic, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Be Up And Running In No Time
SocialMetricsPro installs like any WP plugin. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to convert reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to invest more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Select Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally track and monitor social activity across leading social media networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon directly from your WordPress admin area.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides a number of features to WordPress users. Here are just some of those features:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Ready to use in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. View updated stats from your WP admin bar, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. You can update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting. Reporting is very quickly, using very little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post type, or by post authors.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries in Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just turn all red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are just a few of the testimonials and feedback users have published about Social Metrics Pro:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation
Product Tips
A step-by-step guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license enables you to use SocialMetricsPro on one website only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Edition – This lets you use Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for the SocialMetricsPro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin sells for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the product developer when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines have started taking into account social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them where and how to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to shave years off your social media marketing learning curve.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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